Topical vitamin A treatment of recalcitrant common warts

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Insufficient evidence

Laura Kasman
(2012-03-30 09:59) Med. Univ. of South Carolina

In my opinion, this report lacks some critical pieces of information:
1) Histological or molecular evidence that the lesions pictured are in fact warts
and contain human papillomavirus
2) Independent chemical analysis verifying that the natural oil product used to treat
the lesions in fact contained vitamin A, how much vitamin A it contained, and what
other substances it also contained
3) Controls for other compounds the lesions came in contact with during the course
of the 7 month treatment. New hand soaps or lotions for example, that were not combined
with previous treatments. This would best be controlled for with additional cases.
4) Additional cases. Spontaneous remission of HPV lesions, if that is what these
were, is frequent and well documented.

That prior OTC wart treatments were unsuccessful, and that untreated lesions disappeared
along with the treated ones would seem to favor the conclusion that these lesions
were not warts and they spontaneously regressed.